Afghanistan: Educated unemployed youth express concern over lack of work

Kabul [Afghanistan], June 27 : Educated unemployed youth have raised concerns over the lack of work in Afghanistan and called on the Taliban to provide jobs, Afghanistan-based TOLO News reported.
Fardin, 26, who has graduated from the law and political sciences faculty, said that unemployment has frustrated him. He further said that he will inevitably leave Afghanistan if the situation continues.
Fardin, an unemployed youth said, "I studied for 16 years and nobody thinks about us. If the situation continues like this and nobody hears us, we are obliged to leave the country," TOLO News reported.
Another unemployed youth named Mer Kamal said, "I studied for 16 years but now I am jobless because there are no job opportunities in Afghanistan," TOLO News reported.
Janat Fahim Chakari, a political analyst, said that youth leave Afghanistan as they are facing economic challenges and do not have the motivation for their future. Meanwhile, the Taliban-led Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs said that efforts are being made to provide work to youths in various fields.
Sharfuddin Sharf, head of the office of the Taliban-led Minister of Social Work and Labour said, "Most of our youths are busy in Qosh Tipa and some of them have work in mines and many of them work in transferring gas and oil from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan," as per the news report.
The Taliban-led Ministry of Economy said they have large economic projects to curb poverty in Afghanistan, according to TOLO News. Abdul Rahman Habib, spokesman of the Taliban-led Ministry said that the Ministry of Economy will pay attention to investment in infrastructure and building small and medium industries and supporting domestic production and bolstering the private sector.
Earlier this month, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a report said that the number of unemployed people in Afghanistan has significantly increased in the last two years, Taliban-based TOLO News reported.
The report said, "In addition to other humanitarian crises, unemployment has damaged the lives of millions of people in Afghanistan. People living with disabilities are among the most affected." The ICRC urged the international community and development organisations to start making investments in Afghanistan.
The report reads, "The ICRC welcomes any decision that will enable Afghan families to better cope with the dire economic condition and calls on the international community and development organizations to resume investing in Afghanistan, to prevent the situation from worsening further," TOLO News reported.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross report, nearly 20 million people in Afghanistan, which is 44 per cent of the country's population do not have access to sufficient food, as per the news report. According to the ICRC report, nearly 20 million Afghans do not have enough to eat and 34 million Afghans live in poverty.